Oregon Ducks falter in the men's competition at the NCAA Track & Field Championships

EUGENE a The Oregon Ducks had some bright moments Wednesday at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Hayward Field.

They didn't have enough.

Cravon Gillespie qualified for Friday's men's 100-meter final, and Sam Prakel and Mick Stanovsek took care of business in their qualifying heat of the 1,500 before an announced crowd of 9,767.

But the Ducks got no pleasant surprises from their other entries. They had one unpleasant one in the long jump preliminaries, when national leader Damarcus Simpson managed just one legal attempt and failed to make the event final.

Georgia grabbed the first-day lead with 20 points thanks to a winning shot-hammer double by Denzel Comenentia.

The Ducks, meanwhile, find themselves in unfamiliar territory after Day 1 of the men's competition, scoreless and without many opportunities to make up ground when the men's part of the meet concludes on Friday.

The big moments Wednesday came from guys in other uniforms. Comenentia, for instance. There were others.

Mississippi State freshman Anderson Peters set a meet record by throwing the javelin a winning distance of 271 feet, 9 inches to break the record of 270-11 by Ioannis Kyriazis of Texas A&M last year.

The crowd got a charge out of the hell-for-leather kick to victory by Michigan senior Ben Flanagan, who won the 10,000 meters in 28 minutes, 34.53 seconds.

Flanagan closed with a last lap of 56.95. He came off the final turn and onto the home straight gaining on Alabama's Vincent Kiprop with every step as the crowd roared.

"I wanted to stay as relaxed as possible and respond to everything," Flanagan said. "If everything went according to plan, I wanted to be the last guy to make a move. Luckily it paid off."

The crowd loved it. Flanagan said the fans lifted him on the home straight.

"It was so fun out there," he said. "That crowd, as soon as I started to move, the amount of momentum that carried through with that noise was unbelievable. It really got me through the home stretch."

The University of Portland's Riley Osen squeaked into Friday's steeplechase final as a time qualifier.

Gillespie started well in the 100, was strong in the middle of the race and closed hard to finish in a wind-aided 10.02.

It's the fastest all-conditions time of his career, and Wednesday was just behind Florida State's Andre Ewers, who won that heat with the day's fastest overall time of 10.00.

Gillespie's father, mother and brother were in the stadium.

"It's my mom and my brother's first time in Eugene, so it was pretty special," he said. "My mom had to take off work, so to have them here to cheer me on means a lot to me."

Having the tailwind didn't hurt. That heat was the only one of the three that was wind-aided.

"The guy from Florida State had run a 9.98 before, so I knew I had to come in and put my best foot forward," Gillespie said.

Gillespie didn't get through the 200 preliminaries, which leaves him with just one race on which to concentrate on Friday.

Prakel and Stansovsek were in the same preliminary heat of the 1,500 and took advantage to work together.

The heat began with a glacial pace until Stanovsek broke it up with a strong move after 800 meters.

"It was an 'A' or 'B' sort of thing, where if it was slow I was going to take it," Stanovsek said. "If it was going fast I would just use my tactics. Either way, I was going to be up front somewhere."

Plan "A" worked nicely. Prakel went with Stanovsek, took the lead with a lap to go and held it to the finish line. Stanovsek finshed third to also qualify automatically for the final.

"We wanted to make it a hard last 600 because I think we have the strength to beat a lot of guys with a longer move," Prakel said. "It's nice to take care of business on Day 1 and get to the final."

The meet resumes Thursday with the first day of the women's competition.